The service disruption originated when multiple servers failed automated health checks and became unexpectedly unavailable, driving up infrastructure loads across Exchange Online. Alongside email failures, the incident degraded performance for broader Microsoft 365 services, the Copilot AI assistant, and workplace communications. Microsoft has begun testing a fix and introduced an alternate verification process to remediate the offline servers. Although earlier restoration efforts successfully recovered Teams access in North America, some users continue to face ongoing connection hurdles.
Key points
Microsoft is testing a fix and utilizing alternative server verification methods to resto…: Microsoft is testing a fix and utilizing alternative server verification methods to restore compromised infrastructure.
Exchange Online mailboxes across the Americas were heavily affected across multiple conne…: Exchange Online mailboxes across the Americas were heavily affected across multiple connection methods during the outage.
Connectivity problems lingered for some users even after Teams was successfully restored…: Connectivity problems lingered for some users even after Teams was successfully restored in North America earlier in the day.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
A widespread outage hit Microsoft platforms including Outlook on Thursday, with many users encountering trouble using their email accounts and other errors across the tech giant's suite of apps.
Nearly 130,000 users on outage tracker Downdetector reported problems accessing Outlook just after 1 p.m. ET. New reports have since fallen from that peak, but many said they couldn't send and receive emails or had trouble loading their inboxes altogether.
Thousands also reported issues with Microsoft's workplace messaging app Teams, as well as its AI assistant Copilot and wider Microsoft 365 services.
Microsoft said it was investigating disruptions, notably related to its email and Teams applications.
In updates posted on social media, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it was aware of users "experiencing issues accessing Exchange Online mailboxes through multiple connection methods in the Americas."
Microsoft explained that a portion of its infrastructure was "experiencing elevated load" — which it said was "likely contributing to the connectivity errors." The company determined a number of servers were "unexpectedly unavailable" due to a problem that caused them to fail during "automated health checks."
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Widespread technical disruptions knocked critical productivity and workplace communication tools offline worldwide, impacting nearly 130,000 reporting users as well as external AI integrations run by OpenAI and Anthropic. The incident occurred after automated health-check failures sidelined multiple servers, triggering elevated strain on the remaining infrastructure that was potentially caused by recent configuration updates. Recovery efforts remain gradual to prevent cascading failures as traffic resumes.
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